Juneau to Sitka – via south around Admiralty Island

BB in Gilbert Bay

6/30/11 - What better time to write in my blog than when I’m stuck in anchorage awaiting the end of a series of lows that have descended SE Alaska creating a lot of rainy and windy days.  You’d think it was wintertime, except for the unbelievably long days. I’m writing this in Cannery Cove on south Admiralty Island.  When it semi clears, it’s actually quite beautiful – steep and high hills on either side of a wide bay, covered in trees with lots of birds – most notably a ton of bald eagles, which I have tried to take pictures of when I’m not reading books. There looks like 2-4 buildings on the point with a small pier with some aluminum skiffs tied to it.

Gilbert Bay

2 cruiseliners squeezing by in Tracy Arm

North Tracy Glacier

The temperature here has been lower than past rainy days, so I have not been able to do much of anything except read. Luckily I have a lot of good books, which I’ve been reading voraciously.  I’ve been really into series books lately; mysteries with a main character or characters that I get hooked into.  I’ve finished the latest of the Myron Bolitar mystery series (by Harlan Corben), which I have found to be very entertaining.  Another is a little known series of mystery stories based on an Alaskan State Trooper Nathan Active, a full-blooded Inupiat, in a far-north village in the Aleutians solving mysteries – all activities are steeped in the unique culture of today’s Alaskan Eskimos which makes for very interesting reading.  I find some series books much more entertaining than reading single books – something about seeing familiar characters in different circumstances gets me much more easily hooked into the plot.  I’m sure it’s the same with getting hooked watching dramatic TV show series.  But now that I haven’t been cabled into a TV for a while, it’s all about books for rainy days.

South Tracy Glacier

Admiralty Island is famous for its brown bears, but, as is my luck, I haven’t seen anything except for a brief glimpse amongst the woods when I was kayaking in Snug Harbor.  I know that either this year or the next I’ll see one – cross my fingers.

Tracy Arm glacier shaped valley

We left Juneau on 6/26 and, instead of going to Taku Cove, which I have already been to, I elected to go to Gilbert Bay, further south from Taku.  From what I heard from a local, it has a lot of bears. It was the right place for bears, a big open valley, lots of places that a bear would want to go, and I looked even at 0400 hours, but no dice.

We left early (0400) the next day to head to Tracy Arm and have another go at the glaciers.  This time, it wasn’t clogged up with bergs, and we had an easy, go-all-the-way-up-the-arm trip - lots of bergs to dodge, but not to the point that it was dangerous.  Surprisingly, there were 4 cruise ships that went up there that day.  What was interesting was that the wakes that they would leave behind would reverberate the narrow fiords – never ending, it seems. In an open area of ocean, a wake goes by, you bounce on it for a minute and that’s it.  In a narrow fiord, it bounces from wall to the next and then bounces off the next wall again and so on. BB would rock and roll for the longest time (I ended up rolling out the mainsail as a steadying sail so the boat wouldn’t rock so hard). You see one of these giant ships rounding a corner and squeezing through the narrow fiord going at 15 knots, the first reaction is to head directly to one side or the other of the fiord and hope that it misses you. But, the closer the ship gets, you find that there’s still plenty of room.  In fact, I watched as two giant cruise liners passed each other going in opposite directions – verrrrrry slowly and carefully.

Granite overhanging about 40'

Tracy Arm had some very dramatic granite rock formations and some interesting waterfalls.  And coming to within an 8^th of a mile to the north end of the glacier was pretty amazing in its huge size and cragginess, looking like thousands of years old.  But, I must admit, I am spoiled with the Misty Fiords - it probably was because of the sunny weather, which is much more psychologically and color enhancing.  I’m hoping it will be even better at Glacier Bay, coming up in August.  Hopefully the weather will improve by then, because, so far, it’s been mostly rainy days with an occasional sunny day to turn the mood around.

Weather can be so psychological in its impact on human perception.  I can have a 25-knot breeze in sunny weather and it would be a magnificent, inspiring, and exciting sail.  The same speed in wind in cloudy or rainy conditions, and I’m battling a storm.

It ended up being a pretty long day, as the way to the entrance of Tracy Arm is about 15 miles from Gilbert Bay; going to and from the glacier in Tracy Arm is about 40 miles; and, since it looked like a strong southerly was going to occur making south-facing Tracy Cove a bad anchorage, another long run of 25 miles to Mole Harbor, across the Stephens Passage to Admiralty Island and then up the Seymour Canal.  Nonetheless, that’s what we did – we didn’t get to Mole until about 10pm and by then the southerly was coming up and it was starting to rain.  Mole was kind of tricky, as it’s just a series of reefs that protect you, mostly during low tide.  In high tide, it gets a bit bouncy.  I wouldn’t recommend it.

The next morning, it was raining and cold.  I was thinking of continuing up to Windfall Harbour, but the word was that the weather was going to crappy all week, going into the next and there were no safe havens in southerly winds in that direction – so I headed south to Snug Bay.

Snug Bay was actually quite pleasant and a good anchorage where I spent the night.  In retrospect, I should have stayed there the next day during the bad weather.  But I decided to continue on southwest to Cannery Cove.  I was motor sailing with the main up and the southeasterly and rain was getting worse.  The wind got up to 25 knots (battling the storm?) and the boat was bouncing along vigorously with the short, current-enhanced chop, things getting thrown around (I’ve become much too complacent about storing stuff properly as SE Alaska has been a mill pond until now).  Visibility was not good and my radar was not working very well for some reason.  Luckily, my chart program in my computer was very accurate and I was able to wind our way around some islands and reefs and work into Cannery Cove, where we’re at now.  Cannery Cove is just one of several other coves in Pybus Bay, so I may move to another spot later.

Bears in Cannery Cove - too far away!

Except for all of the bald eagles, I have not seen any other wildlife activity on shore.  Maybe they all want to stay huddled in their shelters until the rain eases off.

Later - It’s now almost 8 pm – the rain has let off and I can see more of the island – the glacier-made valley is beautiful – and I see some bears – far off…it looks like a sow and her cubs, but there seems to be a lot of cubs for some reason.  They are about a mile away, so it’s hard to get any detail.

Cannery Cove - eagle cruisn'

Next day – now July 1 – it’s rain and wind - again.  I’m going to headout anyway.  It looks like Chapin Bay is a nice shelter.  So I pick up the anchor, roll out the mainsail, and motorsail out (ahem, making sure that things are better stored below).  It turns out that it’s light breeze (early at 8am) and the wind and waves don’t start coming up until I’m almost there.  All this time, it’s raining hard.  From what I can tell, Chapin Bay is quite dramatic, narrow, and supposedly has good bear activities.  I’m waiting until it clears up to take out the kayak and do a bit of exploring.  In coming in, I got a bit of signal from my cell phone with some phone messages.  I try to use my sat phone to make some calls, especially since I have a lot of unused minutes, but the cove is surrounded by steep hills that are so high that it blocks out most of the sky, so whenever my phone has a satellite pick-up, it only lasts for a minute or two.  I wonder, if I had to use an EPIRB, would it even work here.  All in all, Chapin Bay is still a very spectacular place.

Chapin Bay - Kayak cruisn'

Next day – rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain etc.  I’m finally getting cabin fever after finishing my umpteenth book and decide to put on my dry suit and go kayaking even if it’s raining.  – As it turns out, that was a good call – with my dry suit and dad’s floppy white hat that I inherited, I was actually quite comfy while circumnavigating the bay, hoping to find a bear foolish enough to venture out in the rain (I’m sure they do it all the time!).  No such luck on the bears, but I did see some bald eagles, though not near as many as there were in Cannery Cove.  The sad truth is those beautiful bald eagles are scavengers and hang out where there is a possibility of a tasty treat with remnants of fish guts etc. from fishermen.  So it’s probably no surprise.

Before I got into this enclosed place, I had a couple of voice messages on my cell.  This is the perfect excuse to up-anchor and head on out to Warm Springs Bay, which is across Catham Strait on the east side of Baranof Island.  Because of the south wind, maybe I’ll get a nice sail.

7/3/11 – Now I’m sitting in a beautiful, small, completely land-locked cove called Ell Cove, because it’s shaped like a backwards “L”.  There are lots of bald eagles and it’s really quiet - no other boats here right now.

Warm Springs Community

Boardwalk in Warm Sprgs

Those branches look nice and warm

Yesterday (7/2) I made it to Warm Springs Bay with a great tail-current and not much wind.  Warm Springs has a couple of other coves attached to it plus it has a small community all connected by boardwalk.  It’s famous for having hot springs above a massive waterfall as well as a nice hike to Baranof Lake. And it also has a couple of public baths that pipe the natural hot springs down to the cove.  It also has a public dock, which was full of boats when I came in. There was even a Cal 40, which I wouldn’t have thought would be a viable boat here in the cold NW.  Apparently it is – I mean it’s all about comfort, isn't it? Some people like comfort more than others.  I like moderate comfort (ie: comfort that I can afford).

Baranof Lake - waterfall is to the left

I elected to anchor at Schooner Cove, in Warm Springs Bay, which was very nice and quiet.

Watch out for the first step-low tide

7/3/11 - I got up that morning and launched the dinghy (in heavy rain, of course).  I blasted over to the docks at Warm Springs and walked up to Baranof Lake (singing or whistling some jazz and blues songs  – didn’t want to run into any bears) on a very well kept path and some boardwalk.  Baranof Lake was beautiful – no pile-up of logs, the water was absolutely clear.  If I had a bathing suit I would have gone for a swim (no, not really – water was icy cold). The lake runs off into the giant falls that runs into the cove, creating a lot of little chop and noise around the boats that are tied up on the public dock.  The folks that live in the tiny community live in nice tidy houses all connected with the boardwalk; I’m sure the noise of the waterfall is just background noise to them. 

Hot tub! Longer than it looks

When I got back from my walk, I decided to try out one of their free public baths – which is a big painted steel tub filled with the hot water piped up from the hot springs above enclosed in a little room with an open view of the waterfall.  The tub is more than big enough for two people, and is almost a swimming pool with one.  I was in heaven…other than the slight smell of sulfur and being not as warm as I would have liked, it was very nice.  When I ever move to land again, I gotta get me one of those tubs - a full 6 feet long and nice and high (or a regular hot tub will do...).

Ell Cove - finally a bit of sunshine!

So here I am in Ell Cove – the sun actually has come out in-between the rain clouds, so I’m actually getting some charging from the solar panels.  Nice.

Kasnyku Falls-near Ell cove

Later that night, it got a little windy, but the cove is so land-locked that it didn’t amount to anything.  I left the next day (7/4/11) meaning to go to Cosmos.  The SE wind started picking up and Cosmos was not as protected as I would have liked when I went in to check.  Since the SE wind was going my general direction, I decided to guide us to Appleton Cove, which was about 15 miles away.  So, continuing up Catham Strait with sails up and then jibing into Peril Strait, which circles around the north side of Baranof Island, we ended up in Appleton Cove, the wind continuously building.  By the time we got there, the wind was blowing a good 25-30 knots.  There was about 3 boats anchored, and I selected a nice spot and put down my anchor, which held very well.  The wind continued blowing hard all night.  I’d get up every 3-4 hours to check that I was still anchored in the same spot, and that everything was ok. During the evening, another 3 boats came in to anchor – including a commercial fishing boat.  I found out later that the winds had come up in some places at about 40-45 knots.

In between rain squalls - Appleton Cove

This morning (7/5) I’m planning on leaving at the right time to get to Baby Bear Bay, located on Sergius Narrows, at high tide.  The wind has gone down a bit.  I debated about hanging out here for another day to wait for the wind to come down, and I was reminded of the time that the whole Wright family, Mom & Dad, Bill, Rick and I, were nailed to Cape Colnet on the west coast of Baja for I think 3 days on the Siwash, waiting for the NW winds to ease off so we could head north back to Ensenada.  The waves created by the heavy winds would roll around the cape, often violently rocking the Siwash and making it hard to do things below, like playing dominoes, which we did to amuse ourselves in the long hours of the day (I’m sure it was hard to cook too, which emphasizes Mom’s ability to get by under duress).  It was so windy that we couldn’t use our dinghy to explore or do anything.  All we could do was just listen to the wind whistling in the rigging, watching the surf, and rolling our guts out, beam to the seas (as the wind was blowing straight off the point).  I forget if we put out a flopper-stopper.

Here, in Appleton Cove, it’s different.  I can take the dinghy out if I wanted to, and there are no seas to roll in.  No rain now with slightly less cloud cover, so my solar panels are trying to boost my batteries.  Just wind, and Peril Strait is pretty enclosed.  So I will leave when it’s appropriate, probably about 1 pm.  I should get there by 5, when the high tide is at its peak.  The bay is very tricky to get into, so having as much depth is a good thing.

The dorsal fin seems pretty big, so they might be killer whales(?)

7/8/11 – As it turns out, I didn’t go to Baby Bear Cove.  I had a favorable tail current, so the tide was too low to get into it and I went faster than I should have, and it turned out that I could get through Sergius Narrows (a place best passed during slack high tide) at the right time.  So I forged on, winding through the Peril Straits heading for Sergius Narrows, narrowly missing some rocks that I had misinterpreted on the chart, shooting out of the narrows doing 11 knots over the ground.  Guess I didn’t get the currents right after all.  When my boat was safely in Salisbury Sound, it took about a half hour before my adrenaline slowed down.  Yikes!  And I have to go back through it when I head north to Auke Bay.

So now I’m tied up to the Eliason Harbor marina, in Sitka.  I have found out that town is a good walk away, so I’ve been using my bike.  I also find that getting a slip during the wintertime may be a real problem, as space is tight if you want an electrical outlet, which I do.  Getting storage for Blue Bossa is becoming more of a challenge than I thought.  There is a place near Juneau called Hoonah, where I read that a lot of boats winter there because they have excellent facilities, it’s a bit warmer than inland ports like Juneau and Wrangell, and that the harbormaster watches over the boats during the winter.  Might be a good place to check out.

To get to the West Marine store, you have to cross the bridge close to the airport – I ended up taking a taxi. I can’t believe the only place they found for a store is way out of the way to all of the transient traffic.  It’s no wonder that West is going to close the store down in September for lack of business emphasized by the high cost of rent for the building.  Apparently, real estate in Sitka is pretty high, according to the lady who cut my hair when I was in town.

I have a lot of boat projects to do this week.  More about Sitka next blog.